scythe samurai VS zalman VS AC and general thoughts

[Statross]

so i really want real-life feedback on these coolers and brands.
i will research nearer the time, but for now i definately wanta flavour.
the reason i'm making a new post of this is that i'm limited to coolers without a back plate if i go for a DQ6, which i'm almost certain to do.

that pretty much rules out "tower" coolers, the scythe mine doesnt specify whether it uses a back-plate, but i'm sure it soes, i know the ninja does.

for the money how are these coolers?
i want to push an e6300 or 6400 to 3Ghz...i'll try on stock but if that works i'll probably go further if at all possible.

the ninja is a great looking cooler, but too costly and uses a back plate, the mine is at the end of my budget and the samurai and the freezer pro 7 look to be perfectly placed, budget wise...but is it any good?

Cheap: AC super silent 4 £5.51 (already have)
>£20:
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 £14.68

scythe samurai £16.91

zalman super flower £19.85
£20>:
scythe mine £25.14
want but cant have (probably):
ninja
£29.54

THANKS

 

[redwing]

The AC7 has several advantages over the Samurai (Z).


1. It has a directionnal cooling system, you can point your CPU fan to exhaust directly into the case exhaust. The samurai on the other hand, uses a standard "top" mounted fan that pulls air into the heatsink which then disperses from thes sides into the motherboard.
I believe the AC cooler is superior here, but you need to be careful that the power mosfets on your MB also get some cooling.


2. The AC cooler uses a 4-pin, PWM-compatible connector. That means, you can set your MB to control the speed of the fan to reduce noise when cooling can be lowered (for example, when the system is idling) and only run the fan at 100% when the CPU reaches a certain temperature.
THat's a huge plus IMO, especially if you like your rig to be somewhat quiet.
At 9V, the AC fan is almost unadible (see the silentpccrew.com review).

THe Samurai does not support that feature, you can make/buy a fan controller to manually set the speed, but you wil not be able to adjust it dynamically. At 12V (100%), the Samurai Fan is somewhat loud (for my taste).


3. A properly trained samurai should be able to easily stand up to a ninja (mercenary assassin). However at Scythe, they decided to give the Ninja name to the superior cooler. Boooo



I've owned both the AC7 and the samurai, and whereas both are good aftermarket heatsinks for the price, the AC Freezer Pro is definitely the better cooler, in my opinion.

Hope this helps

Cheers

 

[Statross]

wow, that was really helpful

i was leaning towards AC7 because of the price..until i saw the samurai (only because of the Scythe brand, thought it may be good)

my AC supersilent really is silent, so if its the same on the freezer 7 then thats great, noise is definately an issue for me, my graphics card fan sounds like a jet to me.

thanks alot

 

[Statross]

owh!

as youve owned them, can you say how well they fare with actually reducing temps?

for OCing essepcially i want a good HSF.

owh, also, it doesnt use a back plate, does it?

 

[redwing]

Both are "snap on", don't require you to remove the MB, no back plate.
(unless Scythe has a newer version of the Samurai around, mine was the Samurai Z)


In terms of cooling prowess, I found the AC7 to be somewhat better, but only if you control your case airflow well. Pointing it directly at a 120mm exhaust fan creates a nice wind-tunnel effect (but without hte wind-tunnel noise ) that channels most of the CPU-related heat right out of the case.
I originally bought the Samurai Z to replace my stock cooler, and it was certainly better than stock (in terms of both cooling and full-speed fan noise). But I think overall the AC7 is better (even if slightly in some cases) in every respect.

It's been a while since I had to tinker with HSF, there might be other options for you out there that i dont know about. Might be a good idea to wait until more posters see this and respond.

With that, I'm off to sleep, nite !

edit : as for the actual temps, they might not be useful to you since the rig I used these coolers for was an OC'd d805 setup running at 3.6Ghz.
At 100% and 3.6Ghz, this little space-heater generates upwards of 150W (according to Tom's anyway). My load temps never got above 68.
That alone should say something about the cooling efficiency
The stock cooler was barely able to cope with the idle heat at that speed (sounded like a jet too).

 

[xyzunit]

I have an e6300 and a AC Freezer 7. Idle temps are 22C, load temps are between 30C and 33C. I have it at stock speeds, in a 68F room.
I have an Antec Sonata II with the stock 120mm fan directly in line with my cooler, and I cannot hear the CPU cooler at all. Even when I have my case door open, it's not very loud.
So if you wanted my opinion on the AC Freezer 7, all I could say is I'm in love with it.